Griffith nurse Kylie Parmenter suspended for tampering with COVID vaccines

It formed part of the unprofessional conduct and implausible claims that led to the nurse and midwife's three-month suspension, and the rejection of her evidence about the tampered vaccines.

Kylie Sharee Parmenter was caught out when she returned to the Griffith pharmacy where she had earlier replaced vaccines meant for herself and a close family member during one of the state's COVID-19 vaccination drives.

The nurse and midwife was found guilty of professional misconduct on Tuesday and ordered to undergo counselling by the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal following action by the Health Care Complaints Commission.

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"For completeness we also find that practitioner's behaviour was also objectively unethical," the tribunal decision said.

The veteran health worker, who began working as a midwife in the maternity unit of Griffith Base Hospital in 2002 and "has had a continued period of employment at the hospital until the current time", was employed by the Murrumbidgee Local Health District (MLHD) during the period in which the events of the complaint was made.

Ms Parmenter went on leave at the end of September 2021, when health care staff had been ordered to receive their first COVID-19 vaccination to continue working.

She tried to get a vaccine that day at a Griffith pharmacy, inspecting a consulting room before booking an appointment for two days later.

Despite being on leave at the time, Ms Parmenter wore her NSW Health nursing uniform with a long-sleeve short underneath to the appointment on October 2, 2021.

"(I was) thinking if I walked in there with my work uniform on they'd be less suspecting of me," she later said.

Ms Parmenter replaced the vaccines in two syringes with another liquid in the 95 seconds she spent alone after asking a pharmacist and her relative to leave the room so she could remove her long-sleeve shirt.

She returned to the pharmacy with the family member four weeks later, ostensibly for a second vaccination.

Ms Parmenter again wore her nurse's uniform despite being on leave and asked for privacy, raising a pharmacist's suspicions.

They looked at the CCTV footage, believing that the woman was tampering with the vaccines.

One of the pharmacy's owners then confronted Ms Parmenter in the consulting room.

"I am making sure you're giving the correct dose to us," the nurse responded.

Ms Parmenter later told the pharmacist she was "just trying to dilute the vaccine" to make it gentler on her relative.

After apologising, the nurse and her relative were given genuine doses.

A representative of the pharmacy lodged a complaint over Ms Parmenter's conduct with the Health Professional Councils Authority the following day.

The MLHD began investigating her conduct in early November, and nine days later its chief executive Jill Ludford submitted a complaint with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency.

The matter was referred to the HCCC following a hearing that was convened on March 15, 2022.

In a decision on Tuesday, the tribunal found it did not accept Ms Parmenter as a credible witness unless her testimony was supported by others due to inconsistencies in her evidence, implausible holes in her memory and lies she told police.

Asked why she had waited until the end of a six-month period while eligible to be vaccinated as a health-care worker, Ms Parmenter said among other reasons that transmission rates for the virus were lower in the summer months.

"Patently, March to September is not 'over the summer months'," the tribunal said.

- with Australian Associated Press

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